NPR News: 09-05-2026 2PM EDT

0:00Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Linda Kenyon. U.S. envoy Steve Whitcough and President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner have arrived in Moscow. Their meeting with Russian officials in an attempt to revive talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine. NPR's Charles Mans reports their trip to Russia will be followed by a visit to the Ukrainian capital tomorrow. President Trump has suggested he has a new proposal aimed at bringing an end to Russia's foreign-a half-year war with its neighbor. Exactly what offer Whitcough and Kushner are bringing remains unclear. Publicly, Russian President Vladimir Putin has shown little willingness to compromise, even as the Kremlin announced a three-day pause on strikes on Kiev while the Americans are in the region. The renewed U.S. diplomatic push comes as the war is entered into a new destructive phase. With both Ukraine and Russia carrying out increasingly deadly drone and missile strikes on civilian and energy infrastructure, concerns are also mounting over alleged Russian hybrid attacks in Europe that could draw NATO allies directly into the conflict.

1:00Charles Mans and Pyaar News, Moscow. Iran says it's moving into a new strategy of preemptive strikes against U.S. military bases in the Middle East. NPR's Jane Raph has more. Iranian Army spokesman Brigadier General Muhammad Akram Niyas said Friday that recent preemptive strikes targeted U.S. forces in Jordan and Syria, along with U.S. bases and Iranian opposition groups in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. The U.S. does not acknowledge American forces in Syria after a pull-out in April, but it has long maintained a support base on the Jordanian Syrian border. The Iranian Foreign Ministry said Friday on social media that its latest strike in Jordan targeted a U.S. base that was preparing to launch attacks on Iran. Jordan did not comment on the reported strikes. Jane Raph and Pyaar News, they root. President Trump has signed two executive orders to help U.S. cattle ranchers and Pyaar's Franco-Odomnyas, says these latest actions follow an effort to lower beef prices that angered

2:04ranchers. Surrounded by a group of U.S. cattle ranchers, President Trump signed one executive order that would allow American farmers to bypass processing plants and process their own beef and sell it directly to consumers. He signed another executive order allowing ranchers to target gray wolves that have long plagued the ranchers. Gray wolves currently receive protections under the Endangered Species Act. Trump was under pressure to take some kind of action to help ranchers amid backlash from his supporters who were angered when he eased tariffs on some 300,000 metric tons of foreign source ground beef. While the administration painted the tariff relief as temporary, farming groups argued that it would harm U.S. ranchers, many of whom were Trump supporters. Franco, or Donas, and Pyaar News, the White House. The tariff relief on imported beef was meant to help lower grocery prices. You're listening to NPR. Spider-Man swung past another box office milestone this week and Pyaar's Bob Mandello has details.

3:07When Supergirl flopped earlier this summer, there was much talk about audiences suffering superhero fatigue. Apparently they were just waiting for the right superhero. Spider-Man brand New Day passed $900 million in North American ticket sales on Friday. Only one movie has ever made more money at the American box office, Star Wars The Force Awakens, which topped out at $936 million back in 2015. Spidey is expected to swing past that all-time domestic record in the next two weeks. I am totally out of control. Brand New Day isn't even better overseas with global ticket sales now topping $2.3 billion. I didn't know you could get that big. Making it the third highest-earning film in history, Bob Mandello and Pyaar News. China's Zhang Zhiyu is no doubt accustomed to people looking up at her. The 19-year-old basketball player who is seven feet three inches tall made her international debut during opening day of the women's basketball world cup in Berlin. Zhang is taller than basketball hall of famous Shaquille O'Neal and just one inch shorter

4:13than San Antonio Spur's big man Victor Wimbemiano. A sheer height of her gives the United States a tough physical challenge to overcome in the four-time defending championships opening 94 to 61 victory. Zhang finished out the game with 13 points in her world's debut. I'm Linda Kenyon and Pyaar News in Washington. As the political landscape shifts beneath our feet, we're all vulnerable to a well-funded distraction economy determined to take our eye off the ball. Our weekly politics series, if you can keep it, is here to help where our focus is not the horse race, but the state. We tackle the big political stories of the day and why they matter for our democracy. Join me Todd Zwilland and me Jen White on the 1A podcast from WAMU and NPR.